Sexual Assault At Military Academies Is Only Getting Worse

The U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point saw a rise in reports of sexual assault during the 2015–2016 school year, according to a new Department of Defense report.

The DoD dropped its annual report that sexual assault and harassment on military academy campuses on March 15, detailing sexual assault and harassment for the Naval Academy, West, and Air Force Academy.

Overall, sexual assault reports across the Air Force Academy, West Point, and the Naval Academy military academies decreased by five cases, from 91 in 2014–2015 to 86 last year. But much of that decrease came from the Air Force Academy, which previously had the highest rate of sexual assault at 49 cases in 2015, but cut it down to 32 cases in 2016.

West Point received 26 reports of assault in 2015 up from 17 reports the previous year, and the Naval Academy received 28 reports up from 25 reports.

“We must foster an environment that rejects sexual assault and sexual harassment, notably during these formative years at our service academies," defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in a press release.

The report’s release could not have come at a worse time for the military, as three service branches — the Army, the Navy, and the Marine Corps — are embroiled in various sex scandals involving the exchange of explicit photos in private Facebook groups of servicewomen.

GREENBELT, Md. (Reuters) - A U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant accused of amassing a cache of weapons and plotting to attack Democratic politicians and journalists was ordered held for two weeks on Thursday while federal prosecutors consider charging him with more crimes.

Attorneys for the Constitutional Law Center for Muslims in America have filed a lawsuit against Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Attorney General William Barr and President Donald Trump asking the court to recognize the citizenship of an Alabama woman who left the U.S. to join ISIS and allow she and her young son to return to the United States.

U.S. soldiers surveil the area during a combined joint patrol in Manbij, Syria, November 1, 2018. Picture taken November 1, 2018. (U.S. Army/Zoe Garbarino/Handout via Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will leave "a small peacekeeping group" of 200 American troops in Syria for a period of time after a U.S. pullout, the White House said on Thursday, as President Donald Trump pulled back from a complete withdrawal.

With a legal fight challenge mounting from state governments over the Trump administration's use of a national emergency to construct at the U.S.-Mexico border, the president has kicked his push for the barrier into high gear.

On Wednesday, President Trump tweeted a time-lapse video of wall construction in New Mexico; the next day, he proclaimed that "THE WALL IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION RIGHT NOW"

But there's a big problem: The footage, which was filmed more than five months ago on Sep. 18, 2018, isn't really new wall construction at all, and certainly not part of the ongoing construction of "the wall" that Trump has been haggling with Congress over.

A group comprised of former U.S. military veterans and security contractors who were detained in Haiti on weapons charges has been brought back to the United States and arrested upon landing, The Miami-Herald reported.

The men — five Americans, two Serbs, and one Haitian — were stopped at a Port-au-Prince police checkpoint on Sunday while riding in two vehicles without license plates, according to police. When questioned, the heavily-armed men allegedly told police they were on a "government mission" before being taken into custody.